hello,
i would like first to thank you so much and second to say something about an
article published earlier and a reply to it later on. it is 'do arabs wear
shoes?'
thank you.

hello everybody,
I am faysal jasem, an Arab guy who lives in the UK since last year. Sami Dib
and Muna al-dakheel have mentioned certain examples
and questions asked to them by people of different nationalities related to
them as Arabs. I agree that they are really embarrassing and shocking
because I have also been asked about some similar issues.

I personally do believe that one reason behind this is the media including
the TV, the journals, the magazines and so on, you can find in them such
scary
perspectives about Arabs in general and Muslims in specific. So, are the
public to be blamed here? What is their fault if WE have such a weak media
that can hardly even exist? The second reason for such a shock is THE ARABS
themselves. I really have other examples of Arabs who go abroad and confirm
this deformed view. And again, how to convince the others that we believe in
such and such while hundreds of other Arabs are affirming the opposite? How
to convince them, for example, that we do not have the concept of boyfriend
and girlfriend while you can see that the Arabs here do have such a concept?
What I wanted to say is that people here are really not to be blamed and
when they ask you such questions, it is because they are really puzzled.

Concerning the idea of wearing shoes instead of sandals, I think that Arabs
who are abroad are so faithful to their sandals and do not want to change
them. You know why? It is not because they carry their traditional customs
wherever they go without being ashamed of it, but because the British girls
often wear sandals in the summer, so it is the custom here and again Arab
people must keep themselves as up-to-date as possible and wear sandals in
order to prevent western people from accusing them of backwardness and
primitivism, do you agree? Really cynical.

Thus, a last word to say is that such a situation is so hard to change and
even
useless to change. Why to? Just to stop their enquiries? Let them ask, we
have the answer and they should believe because the sample is in front of
them. If they do not believe, it is better because this will let them upset
and eager to investigate more and more about our ''shoes''. isn't it nice to
feel thatsomebody is busy with our SHOES......